Student Entrepreneurs from the Perspective of Identity:A Literature Review and Prospects

Abstract

Student entrepreneurs are favored by the government, universities and academic community due to their high growth potential. From the perspective of identity, this paper systematically reviews the literature around the uniqueness of student entrepreneurs”, how to construct the entrepreneurial identity and manage the dual identities for students” and how to transform the identity of student entrepreneurs and the challenges they face”. The findings are as follows: The uniqueness of student entrepreneurs lies in the instability of student identity and entrepreneurship, and the contradiction and unity between them; The uniqueness of student entrepreneurs’ identity management lies in the need to balance the boundary between student identity and entrepreneur identity, including four constructive states: acquisition, moratorium, diffusion and foreclosure of entrepreneur identity, and four management strategies: identity following, identity devouring, identity differentiation and identity expansion; The transformation from students to entrepreneurs involves entrepreneurship construction and student deconstruction, including the transformation from students to potential student entrepreneurs, from potential student entrepreneurs to student entrepreneurs, from student entrepreneurs to professional entrepreneurs, which is the result of the interaction of individuals, families, universities and districts. Therefore, this paper outlines the integrated framework of student entrepreneurs’ identity construction on the basis of distinguishing and analyzing the scope, type and identity of student entrepreneurs, explaining their identity construction and management strategies, and summarizing the influencing factors of their identity transformation. The shortcomings are summarized as follows: First, the classification and inherent heterogeneity of student entrepreneurs have not been paid attention to; Second, the mechanism between student identity and entrepreneurship has not been explained; Third, there is a lack of long-term follow-up research on the sustainable development of student entrepreneurs; Fourth, The outcome and mechanism of the dual identities of student entrepreneurs have not been paid attention to. Finally, some future directions are suggested as follows: Distinguishing the differentiated characteristics of student entrepreneurs’ behavior; Revealing the contingent boundary of the interaction between student identity and entrepreneur identity; Expanding the driving factors of student entrepreneurs’ identity construction based on the event system theory; Analyzing the outcome effect of student entrepreneurs’ dual identities and entrepreneurial activities; Exploring the unique characteristics of student entrepreneurs’ identity construction in the team context.